Valve device for fire extinguishers and the like



Dec. 18, 1956 J. L. DANZIGER 2,774,432

VALVE DEVICE FOR FIRE EXTINGUISHERS AND THE LIKE Filed Sept. 8, 1954 17 I 3. 4 &\ u l M Joseph zi l ltyfi 1g BY VALVE DEVICE FGR FEE EXTKNGUISHERS AND rm rm Joseph L.'Danziger, Broklyn, N. Y., assignor to Scovill ManufacturingCompany, Waterbury, Conn, a corporation of Connecticut Application September a, 1954, set-n1 No. 454,670 lllCl a ims. c1. ice-s1 The present invention relates to a valve device for use on a can or bomb type, single use, pressurized, liquid fire extinguisher or analogous device, and aims to provide certain improvements in said valve device.

Heretofore, single use can or bomb type pressurized, liquid type fire extinguishers have not met with popular favor for various reasons, among which are (1) they have been rather costly because the valve device thereof was complicated; and (2) they have been unreliable because they required a soldering operation or a packed threaded connection for mounting the valve device in the can closure.

It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a valve device for the purpose specified which will overcome the specific aforementioned objections.

A further object of the invention is to provide a valve device for the purpose specified which will not require any special tool or detailed instructions for its use.

A still further object is to provide such valve device which, when subjected to a predetermined temperature, will be automatically operative to release the extinguishing composition.

A still further object is to provide a novel assembly of a nozzle, a valve, and a cap which may be readily applied to a container in a manner analogous to seam-sealing a cover on a can.

The foregoing and other objects of the invention, not specifically enumerated, I accomplish by providing a novel assembly of a nozzle, a valve and a cap formed of suitable materials which are not adversely afiected by the extinguishing composition or the pressure supplying medium, and which depends upon an hermetic seal being formed by crimping the parts tightly together, thereby eliminating screw-threaded or soldered joints. The invention and the novel construction and arrangement of parts will be readily understood from the detailed description which follows, when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 shows in elevation, a preferred embodiment of my invention mounted in the cover of a can, said cover and can being shown in section.

Fig. 2 shows a diametrical sectional view of the valve device mounted in a can cap or closure member.

Fig. 3 shows a diametrical section of a gland'washer constituting part of the assembly, prior to such assembly being completed.

Referring first to Fig. l of the drawings, the valve device is shown as applied to a single use, pressurized liquid fire extinguisher consisting of a can or container adapted to contain a tire extinguishing composition such as carbon tetrachloride and a propellent such as Freon or carbon dioxide. The container 10 is closed by a cap 11 by bead-seaming as shown at 12., and mounted in the cap is a valve device consisting of a sealing plate ordisc 13, a bushing or gland washer 14 and a nozzle 15.

The sealing plate or disc 13 may be formed of any suitable frangible or fracturable material and, under certain circumstances, of a material such as will melt at a tem- 2,774,432 Patented Dec. 18, 1 95 6 resistant, thermoplastic material such as polyethylene and has a bore 17 therethrough which is enlarged or undercut, as shown at 18. (Fig. 3). The bushing 14 is preferably of a the same diameter as the sealing disc 13;

The nozzle 15 may be made of any suitable rigid tubing material such as Bundy tubing and is formed at one end with an enlargement 19 which may be conveniently-provided by fiaring said end of the tube. The flaring provides the tube with an angular edge 20 which, under the impact of force applied to the opposite end of the tube, will cause fracturing or breaking of the sealing disc when the component parts of the valve device are in assembled relation.

The cap 11 is formed with a central tubular portion 21 which, in the course of being struck up, leaves a bent back flange or shoulder 22, and at its periphery with a cylindrical wall 23 which terminates in a reversely turned flange 24 which is coated on its under face with a sealing compound 25 adapted to form a fluid-tight seal with the can when said flange is roll-seamed to the can body when capping the latter.

To assemble the'valve device, the nozzle or tube 15 is first force-fitted through the bore 17, 18 of the bushing 14 displacing the material thereof, as shown in Fig. 2, and anchoring the flared end of the tube within the bushing. The sealing disc 13 is then positioned over the shoulder 22 of the cap with the rib 16 directed upwardly, the bushing carrying the nozzle is then positioned over the sealing disc and the free edge portion of the central tubular portion of the cap is then swaged over the bushing, as shown at 21, to cause the rib 16 tobite into the bushing 14 and thereby provide a fluid-tight seal between the parts. Of course, the parts may be assembled and united in a single operation. The parts 11, 13, 14 and 15, when assembled, constitute the valve device of the present invention, as an article of manufacture, adapted to be applied to a container.

For operation, the valve device when applied to a container filled with a fire extinguishing composition and a propellent, would merely require the user to strike the exposed nozzle against some object, thereby forcing the sharp inner edge of the nozzle through the fracturable or frangible sealing disc, whereupon the container contents, when the container is held with the nozzle downwardly, will be rapidly discharged. Where the sealing disc is made of fusible material, such as hereinbefore described, the container could be mouuted in inverted position at a' strategic place so that the container contents would automaticallydischargewhen the seahng disc is subjected to melting temperature.

While I have shown and described a preferred embodiment of the invention, it is to be understood that changes in details of construction may be made therein within the range of mechanical and engineering skill, without departing from the spirit of the invention as hereinafter claimed.

What I claim is: v

1. A valve device for attachment to an apertured wall of a container. adapted to hold a fire extinguishing composition under pressure, comprising a unitary assembly of an imperforate frangible sealing plate, a washer formed of elastomeric, dimensionally stable material which. is

. r 3 chemically resistant to fire overlying said sealing plate, a carrier holding the sealing plate and washer in fiuid-tight engagement and adapted to provide with the sealing plate and washer a closure for the apertured wall of the container, a rigid, longitudinally recessed member extending outwardly through the opening in the washer and frictionally held thereby, said-rigid member being adapted to be manually forced inwardly to extinguishing compositions 1 carrier has a central tubular part, the end.portions :of

which are flanged over' the peripheral portions ,of the 7,

said p arts in burst the sealing plate and provide a nozzle for the dis- 7 charge of the fire extinguishing composition from the container. 7

2. A valvedevice according to claim 1, wherein the V v rigid, longitudinallyirecessed member is tubular, is force- 7 r fitted .intothe-bofe of the Washer and is formedwith an enlargement adjacent its inner end,

3.fA valve device according to'claim 1, wherein the sealing disc isformed of a substance which will melt at 1 fluid-tight engagement.

a temperature of approximately between 150 and 170 F. 4. A valve device according to claim 1, Whereinthe sealing plate and the Washer for holding 'Refereuces Cite'diin the iile of this patent 7' TED STATES PATENTS) 

